Fiestar – ‘A Delicate Sense’ Album Review

The ladies of Fiestar are back a year later with their second mini-album, A Delicate Sense. Though Fiestar has previously released a number of catchy tunes such as Pitiful, they seem to have been fairly under-appreciated until rapper Yezi blew up overnight via popular variety show Unpretty Rapstar. She not only made a name for herself, but strengthened Fiestar’s reputation. A Delicate Sense is intended to capture the interwoven feelings between love and separation, and act as an extension of Fiestar’s sad sexy concept from their previous album Black Label. Yet it ended up being hardly memorable, with most of the tracks showing consistently mediocre musical progression and just enough glitz in the backbeat to get you through the album.

Track 1 – 입술 한 모금 (A Sip of Lips)

A Sip of Lips is an alluring mid-tempo dance pop track with a solitary hollow electric guitar sound over dynamic percussion drums that gives the song a crossover between rustic wild wild west and exotic ethnic tribal vibe. But aside from the unique aura of the instrumentals, the melody progression of the song is unfortunately flat and rather repetitive.

Track 2 – Mirror

Title track Mirror is an 808-rhythm-based synthpop number commonly found in Kpop. As such, it’s got a sizzling backbeat and a sweltering hooky chorus easy for the listener to catch unto. One twist worth noting is that Yezi sheds her famous “crazy dog” tough rapper image, and changes to a softer, more relaxed rap delivery in Mirror.

Track 3 – Mr. Black

Mr. Black starts with a distinctive artificial trumpet synth that reverberates in the background. It quickly turns into a mid-tempo seductive dance pop number with light beats and clean piano chords appearing at appropriate times. Fiestar’s sultry vocals and Yezi’s sticky rap really bring out the sexiness of the track. Though pleasant sounding, Mr. Black is regrettably not a standout tune either.

Track 4 – 갈증 (Thirst)

Next up is a delicate R&B song with a persistent electronic, static-like synths and an occasional dose of xylophone string that adds an east meets west twist to it. Though Thirst has a smooth melody and is by no means an unpleasant song to listen to, I have do a few complaints about its composition. First, it seems to me that the excessive lo-fi background sound is a distraction from enjoying Fiestar’s breezy voices particularly during the chorus, and doesn’t seem to jive with the mood of the song very well. Secondly, the mixing of the song feels unbalanced to me, with the instrumental track easily overpowering the girls’ vocals.

Track 5 – 왔다갔다 (Back and Forth)

A Delicate Sense wraps up with a groovy electric guitar backed mid-tempo pop ballad tune, Back and Forth. The verse of the song is fairly monotonous and blend, but the chorus has a decently catchy hook. With the help of the girls’ crystal clear high-pitched harmonies, winding ad libbing, and Yezi’s swagger-filled rap, the second half of the song is much more enjoyable than the first half.